MORNINGTON’S not-for-profit hospital The Bays is closing its intensive care unit, prompting fears by some staff of job losses and a reduction in patient care. Whistleblowers believe the change in status from intensive care to “high dependency” was a decision made by the executive team and the board due to cost blowouts and will result in jobs losses, reduced patient care and moving some patients to other hospitals.
It is believed the change in status means there will be no requirement to employ an intensive care unit doctor on site, with emergencies run by the critical care nurse working that shift. One staff member said the change was “concerning” as nursing staff could not prescribe medication, even in emergencies. “The staff will be relying on calling the patient’s doctor – hoping they answer the phone) for advice, hoping they answer the phone – for advice,” the staff member said. “In a major emergency staff will be required at call 000 and a bed found in an ICU from another hospital.”
The hospital’s CEO Jane Phelan said “the health care environment” was experiencing significant challenges and all hospitals were required to review their services and make decisions based on demand. She said the decision to reclassify the ICU to a HDU (high dependency unit) followed “very low demand” for intensive care services at The Bays Hospital over the past five years. “More than 95 per cent of the patients we care for in the unit require HDU-level services, and those services will continue to be provided,” she said. “All of our ICU nursing staff will be retained, with a team of appropriately skilled and qualified doctors providing a high level of care under the HDU model.
“As a community owned not-for-profit hospital, the reclassification will allow us to reinvest in theatre equipment and expand our services in areas where the community needs us the most, particularly cancer services. Our new cancer care centre is on track for completion in August and will bring much-needed cancer services to the peninsula.” The Bays is now building a cancer centre which will include radiation oncology, research facilities for clinical trials, a wellness and education centre, courtyard garden, consulting suites and a wig library.
The hospital received some federal government money for the cancer care centre but has been appealing for community and philanthropic support to complete the project. Currently, there are no radiation oncology services and only limited chemotherapy and cancer support services on the Mornington Peninsula.
The whistleblower said they believed the broader peninsula community “should be made aware” of the hospital’s decision. The 100-bed hospital has been in operation for more than 90 years, starting in 1937 as the King George Memorial Bush Nursing Hospital. It has two sites, the main hospital in Main Street, Mornington, and a dialysis services and aged care centre in Victoria Street, Hastings.
It opened its ICU – originally staffed by senior doctors, ICU nurses and consultants – in May 2019 to provide acute care to post operative patients. However, staff have told The News the unit has seen a decline in patients requiring intensive care and has been offering more of a high dependency style of nursing. Those patients, while still requiring more support than in the wards, do not need to be monitored as acutely as those in intensive care.
“Over the past 12mths, the executive management team have been monitoring the unit’s patient days closely and closing the ICU during periods of low occupancy, with 13 weeks of closure during school holidays,” a staff members said. Mornington MP Chris Crewther offered to provide advocacy to the state government to allow The Bays to retain its ICU services.
First published in the Mornington News – 18th June 2024
